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Effects of exercise on age and disease
D T Lowenthal1, D A Kirschner, N T Scarpace
1Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center, VA Medical Center, Gainesville, FL 32608-1197.
Southern Medical Journal
|May 1, 1994
Summary
Regular physical activity can help healthy older adults manage age-related health issues. Exercise can improve cardiac, pulmonary, and metabolic health, potentially slowing aging and disease progression.
Area of Science:
- Gerontology
- Cardiovascular Health
- Exercise Physiology
Background:
- Aging is associated with changes in cardiac and noncardiac organ systems.
- Coronary risk factors can be exacerbated by age-related physiological changes.
- Lifestyle factors significantly influence the health trajectory of the elderly population.
Purpose of the Study:
- To summarize the effects of physical activity on healthy elderly individuals.
- To explore how exercise impacts coronary risk factors and age-induced organ system changes.
- To establish the role of exercise in mitigating age-related diseases and the aging process.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing data on exercise and the elderly.
- Analysis of studies examining physical activity's impact on physiological systems.
- Synthesis of information regarding exercise prescription for older adults.
Main Results:
- Physical activity can treat or blunt many age-associated diseases.
- Exercise positively influences cardiac, pulmonary, musculoskeletal, and metabolic-endocrine systems.
- An active lifestyle can alter the progression of age-related changes and risk factors.
Conclusions:
- Integrating exercise into the lifestyle of healthy elderly individuals is beneficial.
- Exercise interventions can forestall or rectify many age-related changes and risk factors.
- Physical activity is a key strategy for improving the quality of life in the elderly.